Isolated schools: Out on a limb

The Future Leaders Trust

This research paper explores the relationship between school performance and relative geographical isolation in England, defined as the straight-line distance to the next nearest secondary school.

The research particularly looks at how this relates to the GCSE attainment of students in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM students). It establishes a correlation between poorer outcomes for FSM students and relative geographical isolation.

Key findings

As relative geographical isolation of schools increases, the average attainment of FSM students decreases.

For each additional kilometre between schools, FSM students’ attainment of five or more GCSEs at A* to C including English and maths (5+A*-C[EM]) declines by an average of 1.06 percentage points.

Looking at average attainment over the past three years, both FSM and non-FSM students perform worse in schools that are further apart, but the impact on FSM students is greater.

Over the past three years, schools less than 1km apart saw 49% of their FSM students achieve 5+A*- C(EM). In schools that are 5km or more apart, this falls to 37%. The three-year national average in state-maintained schools for all FSM students in this study is 42.6% and for all non-FSM students is 64.9%.

The majority of schools where the proportion of FSM students attaining 5+A*-C(EM) is above the national average for all students are within 1km of another school.

Even after taking into account school and student characteristics (proportion of students who speak English as an additional language [EAL], students with special educational needs [SEN], FSM students and total student population), FSM students’ 5+A*-C(EM) attainment still declines by an average of 0.745 percentage points for every additional kilometre between schools.

This blog post originally appeared on the website of The Future Leaders Trust. In November 2016 The Future Leaders Trust joined forces with Teaching Leaders to form Ambition School Leadership. Together we will tackle educational disadvantage faster and more effectively, improving the life chances of more of our most disadvantaged pupils. Click here to find out more about Ambition School Leadership.